Don’t be stupid?

I was catching up on some reading and ran across the following Letter to the Editor of the publication I was reading:

“With reference to your article on accountable care organizations, insurance companies have long tried to shift risk to doctors using various schemes and disguises. ACOs are another example of this deception. Doctors who sign up for these programs are just stupid. It is that simple. It is time to call a spade a spade and refuse to participate.”

It will be interesting to see where all this goes with ACOs. Are they going to be just really “puffed up” PHOs? I know a lot of healthcare systems are gearing up to form one and I know of independent physician-owned IPAs also looking in to the ACO concept. Like anything, do your due diligence for hopping on the so-called bandwagon. I’m sure I’m going to have a lot more to say about this topic and additional guidance on ACO formation is published.